


Of Cats and Ribbons

by RisuAlto



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, First Meetings, Pre-Relationship, this is really really old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 11:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21475093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/pseuds/RisuAlto
Summary: Recently, his cat had been pulling a rather arbitrary disappearing act.  Natsu investigates.
Relationships: Happy & Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel & Happy, Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	Of Cats and Ribbons

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this comic](https://nadhie.tumblr.com/post/118638954518/i-made-a-first-meeting-doodle-comic-this-au-is) and its AU by the lovely [nadhie](https://nadhie.tumblr.com).
> 
> This work is several years old, now, but I only recently started posting things on AO3 properly. Enjoy.

The tune on Natsu Dragneel’s lips that day was an embarrassingly familiar one. At least it was for all of his neighbors; the young man himself saw nothing wrong with trekking across town whistling the theme song of an anime. 

Spring was debuting its new high temperature that day, and Natsu found his hand was quickly growing uncomfortably sweaty from clenching around the handles of a plastic shopping bag. As he dumped the plastic from one hand into the other, a rather unharmonious chorus of metallic collisions reminded him to be a little more careful. After all, last time a can had exploded inside the bag, and Happy had nearly suffocated himself trying to get at the fish-flavored cat food that was smeared inside it.

Though he didn’t stop whistling, Natsu frowned a little bit at the thought of his blue-haired cat. Recently, his cat had been pulling a rather arbitrary disappearing act. Natsu was finding it an awkwardly common occurrence to arrive home and find that Happy was in fact, nowhere to be found. The first time it had happened, Natsu had frantically paced around his block for hours, refusing to give up on his feline companion until a familiar blue head poked itself indignantly around the corner of a fence, as if to ask, _Why are you _shouting_ so much?_

Natsu had inspected his cat for injuries and offered him an extra helping of food, but Happy seemed perfectly unharmed and actually shunned the food all together.

It happened again a few days after that, and then once more few days later, and so on, often on days when the sky chose to unleash a downpour on the town; and each time, Happy would return at some odd hour of the afternoon or evening, seeming content and smelling like someone else’s cat food (Natsu never bought the cod flavored ones after all), proceed in typical feline fashion to make a mess of everything.

But perhaps the most peculiar things about this situation were the ribbons. Natsu had a collection of them, actually, and they could be viewed at any time by simply glancing around his home. The things were everywhere, strewn across couches, tabletops, beds… And they were all _red_. Every single one the same shade of rose, and Natsu always found them tied primly, but carefully around Happy’s neck whenever he returned from his mysterious escapades.

Natsu had come to only one conclusion. Someone was trying to steal his cat. _Someone_ thought they could bribe the impish little creature with food and _ribbons_. And, Natsu affirmed with a glance at the shopping bag filled with cod-flavored cat food, he wasn’t going to stand for it. Clearly, this someone underestimated the power of Natsu and Happy’s bond. 

It was this bond that caused Natsu to suddenly stop walking. He always claimed he could sense when his cat was nearby—he called it his _Happy-sense_—and Natsu would swear at the moment that it was tingling. He glanced around briefly, but saw nothing except a brick wall and the road he had been following.

Never one to doubt his instincts, though, deep green eyes wandered up the wall to his right. Natsu highly doubted his cat would get stuck on top of a property wall, especially one so close to the road, but just in case—

_There._

A swish of blue caught his attention. Because there, inside the wall he was searching moments ago, several stories up the building behind it, was unmistakably Natsu’s cat, perched on an open windowsill, and being attended by a princess.

Or at least that was Natsu’s first impression of her, and crawling, verdant ivy adorning the old brick work certainly wasn’t helping dispel the fairy-tale illusion. A young woman was visible through the open window, blonde hair just barely held out of her face. The light, airy blouse she wore had sleeves that only made it to her elbows, but her clothes weren’t really what caught Natsu’s attention. 

It was her hands, which were busy slipping a familiar red ribbon around the neck of his cat.

Lucy Heartfilia hummed cheerily to herself as she began to secure a new ribbon on her mysterious blue visitor. She still had no idea where the endearing little feline came from, or how he managed to pull off her ribbons every couple of days, but she wasn’t about to turn down company in her small apartment.

People looking through the open window from the sidewalk below as they passed her apartment building was nothing new, but Lucy was quite unused to someone stopping for the express purpose of staring up at her. Thus, the still figure several stories down caught her attention abruptly and then held on to it with one finger.

Of course, the stranger’s locks of pink hair were nothing normal either, but Lucy was more interested for the moment in why this young man was pointing, seemingly right to her, with a plastic shopping bag dangling from his grasp. The way his eyes were fixed in a blank stare seemed almost accusing. Lucy wasn’t sure why she was being judged (so what if the stray cat was blue; that was no reason to _stare_), yet a bashful flush crept into her cheeks.

Meeting the stranger’s eyes, Lucy pointed hesitantly to herself, as though asking, _Me?_

Twice the young man nodded. _Yes, you._

Slowly, Natsu reached into his back pocket, never once breaking eye contact with the blonde stranger above, his fingers deftly hooking a few lengths of silky cloth. These he raised up, displaying them in an open palm.

If Lucy was mildly surprised before, wildly embarrassed did not begin to describe her feelings now. Her brown eyes widened, unblinking, as she stared at the familiar cerise cloth in the young man’s hand. _The cat… this cat was…_

She ducked out of sight, burying her face in a throw pillow, but even that didn’t drown out the impatient protests from the owner of her not-so-stray blue cat.

“Hey!” Natsu cried as the woman dashed away from her window. “No! Blonde! Come back!” She didn’t, so Natsu settled for meeting Happy’s cheeky gaze instead. “And you, traitor cat—” It only took a moment for Happy to turn his back with an impudent flick of his tail, curling lazily on the ledge outside the window. A growl quite befitting of Happy himself rolled off Natsu’s tongue. “I’ll see you at _home!”_

But, Natsu admitted, his little turncoat kitty didn’t have bad taste. She was kind of pretty, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did the artwork justice. This AU simply inspired me too much, and after I looked at the most recent comic, this story was practically writing itself. I can take credit for only two ideas in this story (the cod-flavored cat food and Lucy’s throw pillow), but all the rest of this genius belongs to nadhie. Please check her out. She is a wonderful person and glorious artist.


End file.
